XVSV
by The wander
Summary: Yet another what if Xander went as something else on Holloween.


XVSV

150 years ago.

Kel'shakc moved across the ice planes of northern Canada. His prey was very tricky - the human had beaten back the Kainde amedha. And then it had escaped.

It would make a worthy trophy.

He only had to catch it.

John Moore ran.

The Demons were still behind him. He just knew it. He fell, sliding around on the ice, as the feeling that someone was behind him was there again ran down his spine.

Terror gripped him again. He knew he was dead. First, he lost his Slayer; then, the rest of the party had gone down as well.

The Slayer was the first, taken by those things, black as night with metal teeth. Then, one by one, all of his friends and traveling companions had gone as well.

Back at the hive.

The young bloods were just about to finish off the hunt when it turned. The Kainde amedha swarmed them, taking each one down, 'til the last of the hunters fell back.

He was lost and he knew it. So he fell back on his training. Never let the other side win.

Hitting his self destruct, he waited for the count down to hit zero, as the shadows came for him.

Kel'shakc was just going for the final blow when the blast from the young bloods reached him, shifting the ice underfoot, opening and closing spots, and dropping him into a small pool of ice-cold water.

Before he had a chance to move, the opening over his head slammed shut. And with it, the walls of the pool moved, pinning him helplessly beneath the ice.

Where he slowly froze to death.

Unable to move, or to hit the destruct button.

130 years ago

The Council was back.

Following the directions from the mad man, John Moore, the leader looked down at the body they pulled from the ice. Undoubtedly a demon, from the looks of it, but of an unknown type.

He smiled and looked down as the group went about their business. The others were heading deeper into the ice fields, leading a new Slayer to the hive that had claimed the last Slayer in the this area.

But he had found what he was looking for: an edge to move his family into a positions of power.

Soon, the Travers family would rule them all, then the world.

100 years ago

The demon's body stood stuffed in a corner of the room, its armor and weapons laid out for display.

Morgan Travers looked down at the children playing in front of it - his children, the future of the Travers family.

Even the boy sitting on one side reading from the journals - the Rayne boy. He was the son of his daughter, who married that low born scum that had close ties with the Giles family. It was a sacrifice to keep control of the Council, but it was worth it.

50 years ago.

It was just a box left to rot in a back room of the family home that had been given to the Raynes for their help to the Travers family.

George Rayne stood over it, looking at it: a stuffed Demon and armor. No one had thought about it in years, but he needed a test subject for his spells and it would work.

A renewal spell.

He placed all the armor out on the floor and soon the spell was cast.

Looking over the armor, he could see that the spell was working. The armor was shiny, and new. The worn and broken pieces were gone.

Smiling to himself, he was satisfied - now he could work on the Books of Janus. They had been worn and damaged over the years. There was no telling the useful information that he could pull from those texts now.

30 years ago.

Ethan looked at the armor and stuffed creature.

They had never found another one like it, but records of them had filtered in over the years. A hunter, a killer, always in the heat and always around conflict.

A creature of Chaos.

Ever since he found his father's books on Janus, he had became enthralled with the very thought of Chaos. He had talked his friend, Ripper, into working with his spells on that front and soon it would come to fruition.

But this... this was an idea all his own.

Taking a knife, he started to work on the seams where the creature had been stuffed.

Three days before Halloween.

He had done it.

Standing back, looking at his shop, he could see that it was ready. The spell was in effect on everything here. This Halloween would be the best bit of Chaos he had ever done.

He turned and walked into the back of the store, stopping to look at the armor of the creature, the demonic skull-like face looking out from inside the armor's helmet. Beneath it, the box with the skin and head of the creature had been made into a leather outfit and headdress.

Smiling, he reflected that it was just the thing for a special person to wear it.

The day before Halloween.

"Solider, solider," Xander said rooting around through the shelves in the back of the store, "Where are the soldiers?"

He had been going through the stores for over an hour now. Buffy and Willow had long since left with their own costumes for the night, both picking out theirs and hitting the road, leaving Xander to hunt through the piles of costumes.

Just as he started to move to the final bin, he saw the football team leave, each one with a gun and uniform. Soldiers. Each and everyone of them.

"Damn," Xander muttered as the group left the store. There was no way he was dressing up the same way as those goons were.

He looked over the selection again.

"Well, I could go as Giles, I guess," Xander said, shuddering and looking at a tweed jacket.

"Giles?" a voice said behind him, causing Xander to let out a yelp and turn, his eyes wide with fright.

"Don't do that!" Xander almost screamed, grabbing his chest and causing other shoppers to turn and look at the pair.

"I do apologize," Ryan said with a oily voice, "But did you say Giles? Would that be any relationship to the Giles of London?"

"Well," Xander said calming down a bit. "He's English."

"Is his name, Rupert, by any chance?"

Ethan couldn't believe his luck. If this was true, Janus surely looked on with favor.

Xander paused. This guy didn't look like the kind of people that Giles would hang with. He wasn't book-y looking, he was a ruff person with perv-y looks, while Giles almost had a hart attack with the thought of a woman looking at him.

"We're old school chums," Ethan said, when he saw the youth hesitating.

Well, that explained it, Xander thought. I do go to school with Cordy. And what the hell was a chum? Sounds like something you fish for sharks with.

"Yeah," Xander finally answered the man, "he works as the librarian at school."

"Is that so?" Ethan smiled. "I must meet him before I leave town.

"So, have you found a costume?"

"Yeah," Xander said glumly. "But it walked out the door."

"Oh, I am so sorry," Ethan said, frowning. "Do you have a back up costume?"

"No," Xander said sulking a little, "the troll is going to nail my hide to the wall for not having one when I take the kiddies out."

"Well," Ethan said smiling once again as he walked towards the back of the store, "I do have something that you might like."

After arriving in the back storeroom, he pulled a curtain aside, and there stood a leather outfit, and beside it, a suit of strange armor and a skull-like helmet.

"A costumer was supposed to pick this up this morning," Ethan pointing at what was left of the creature, "But he called and canceled the order. So, it's yours, if you want it."

"I...I... Couldn't afford this," Xander stumbled. He really didn't know that he wanted to dress as a demon for Halloween.

"Like I said, another customer cancelled the order," Ethan said smiling, pouring on the charm and pushing a little magic into it. "They already paid for it. Halloween is only once a year. And just think of the scare you could put into the girls. I sure they would love you for the fun these could be."

"I don't know," Xander said, still not decided. Scaring Buffy could cause him to lose a limb or three.

"You could even drop in and scare your friend Giles."

That's what did it. All the times that Giles had pulled that snooty stiff upper lip thing with him. The thought of Giles cutting loose with a scream as Xander jumped out of a dark hallway - now that was would be worth it.

"I'll take it," Xander grinned.

The next night.

Xander was kind of glum, but giddy at the same time. He had not seen Giles all day; the librarian had locked himself away in his office to work on something.

Most likely to re-order the card catalog, Xander thought as he left the school.

On the other hand, Xander had ran across the troll, and it had been well worth it. Snyder had screamed and bolted to his office and locked his door. So Xander had just taken his kids and left.

He had missed the girls; with the time it had taken him to put on his costume and arrive at the school, the girls were long gone with their kids.

But his kids had loved his outfit, once they to had gotten over the shock.

And the night had gone rather well, for the first half.

But then...

The next day.

Buffy and Willow sat in the Library, both looking a little lost.

Xander was gone.

No one had seen him all night. His kids had made it back safe and sound but he had disappeared into the night.

Ethan Rayne had laughed when Giles questioned him about the costume the male Scooby had received, but he had never answered a question. And very quickly, he just disappeared into to the night.

The School was subdued that morning as well.

Most of the football team was dead. The ones that had been found had been skinned and their skulls removed. The others had just disappeared.

Just like Xander which didn't make for a happy Slayer and witch.

Soon, the Scoobies broke up and headed off to their classes, while Giles went back to the phones.

As soon as the room had emptied, a blur broke off from the wall. It moved across the room, a clicking growl accompanying it.

Once it reach the table, a note appeared. It fluttered in the air, then dropped to the table.

The blur turned and left the room through the stacks.

A while later

Giles walked through the room, and he saw the folded piece of paper. It was stained and torn in places.

Guys,

Don't look for me. I am alive, but something happened last night.

I did horrible things, and I can't come back. But I will always watch out for you.

If you truly need me, I will be there for you.

Love, Xan

Giles looked at the note, a frown on his face. Xander was gone.

Looking back on his own past, he could understand why someone would want to run away. But with all that came out last night - about him, and Ethan – he couldn't believe that Xander could have done anything worse than that.

Right?

One year later.

Buffy was fighting for her life. The Hellmouth had opened.

Across the library, the rest of the Scoobies were hard into the battle, Faith smashing the Hell Bitches, while Giles and Willow worked on a spell to close the 'mouth.

Buffy jumped over the hole in the floor where Angel had been smashed into the basement. But just as she completed her jump, one of the arms hit her, pining her against the wall while the mouth-like end moved to maul her.

Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise, and then the arm dropped to the floor, severed inches from where it was holding Buffy in place.

The creature screamed in rage and thrashed its other arms.

A answering roar from across the room stopped all action in the room. Where the roar had come from, a bladed disk was held in the air by a blur. The hell bitches who had been attacking Faith pulled back toward the Hellmouth, as a blur detached itself from the wall.

The blur moved forward, a clicking growl came from it, and then a red beam of light clicked on. As it hit each of the hell bitches, a ball of plasma flew from the blur, striking each bitch in the chest, and with it, each demon died. Then, with a roar, the blur ran at the Hellmouth demon, twin blades extending from one its arms.

Just as the blur reached the demon, the blur faded away.

A demon, Buffy thought as she tried to draw in a breath. A Demon was here helping them.

Faith drew next to Buffy, helping her to her feet.

"Yo B," Faith said, "You ok?"

"Fine," Buffy said gruffly, watching as the demons fought.

Soon it was over, and with the end of the battle, the Hellmouth closed.

As the demon turned to leave, it stopped and bent down and sliced off one of the Hell bitch's heads. Then, once again, the demon started to walk toward the door, day-glow green blood dropping to the floor as he went.

It turned and looked at the Scoobies, just as other forms started to come out of the shadows. These blurs also started to form more of the demons.

Soon, the Scoobies were surrounded.

The wounded creature growled at the others and, one by one, they drew back, each one flowing back into a blur that was soon gone.

The creature pulled a package from under its armor, dropping it to the ground. Then, with almost a sob coming from its skull-like helmet, it turned and it, too, faded from sight.

"What the hell was that?" Faith asked the room as Angel burst into the room.

"Sorry, it took so long to get back," Angel told the room, "had to deal with a bunch of Zombies and a bomb."

After everyone on had rested, and started to hide the evidence of the supernatural that was all over the room, Giles pulled the package apart.

"Good Lord!"

Xander stood on the command deck of the ship; they would soon be leaving orbit.

The geek in him was jumping for joy, but the White Knight part was in tears.

He was leaving his girls.

Oh sure, he would be back, eventually.

To Hunt.

He could no long deny that part of himself. He was starting to look at the humans around him as prey, so he was leaving.

Thanks to the shopkeeper, he was trapped in this body. When the spell had washed over him, it had sealed him into this body. He was no longer human; he could recall hunts on hundred different worlds, sights that no human had ever seen. And after a year, the creature side was winning; slowly but surely, he would start to hunt humans.

And the most dangerous humans were the Slayers.

That couldn't happen.

Even with demons around, the urge to hunt Buffy or Faith was almost over whelming

So he tried his beacon and summoned a ship. It had been a trial to join them. He had hunted with some of the deadliest creatures in Sunnydale, always keeping Buffy and Faith hidden from them.

The last test had been the Hellmouth guardian. And with it killed, and the hell bitches with it, he was at last free to leave this world.

Just then, the ship jumped and entered light speed.

Xander would have smiled if he was still able to do that.

He'd left the note for Giles telling all that had happened, and what he knew of the creatures. Maybe it would come in handy some day.

Looking around at the others, each with a trophy from his home world, he knew that he would be back someday.

He just hoped that it would be Xander who would return and not the Hunter.

End.


End file.
